Crop Plants and Heavy Metals

Dear Colleagues,

Increased industrial and agricultural human activities, such as mining, wastewater irrigation, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides, have resulted in high environmental concentrations of toxic concentrations of heavy metals and metalloids. Since heavy metals are non-biodegradable, they accumulate in the environment and, subsequently, enter the food chain, posing a risk to environmental and human health. It is now well recognized that the increased concentrations of some non-essential metals for plant growth, such as Cd, Pb, Ni, Al, As, or Cr, accumulate in the environment and subsequently become toxic to all living organisms. Increased heavy metal concentrations in the soil lead to reduced crop growth and altered physiology and metabolism, causing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and resulting in oxidative stress. Heavy metals also interfere with the uptake of essential nutrients and water, and as a result, crop yields decrease in heavy metal-polluted soils. Heavy metal-metalloids phytotoxic manifestations on crop plants include disturbance of nutrient uptake and translocation, photosynthetic reduction (decrease of photosynthetic pigments, inhibition of electron transport, decrease of CO₂ fixation, chloroplast disorganization, photooxidative damage), generation of ROS, inhibition of antioxidative enzymes, cellular redox imbalance, DNA damage, and protein oxidation. Some heavy metals are carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, and endocrine disruptors, while others cause neurological and behavioral changes. Thus, crop production in heavy metal-polluted soils is a major concern in agriculture. Keeping in view the above facts, this Special Issue will focus on highlighting timely research studies that address heavy metal-metalloid toxicity effects on crop plants, as well as food safety issues from metal toxicities.

Papers will deal with all aspects of crop physiology and development, from growth, water relations, nutrition, photosynthesis, and related physiological processes to changes in metabolism using omics techniques (ionomic, metabolomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, genomic, etc.). Any paper dealing with the effects of heavy metal stress on crop plants will be considered.

Authors are invited and welcome to submit original research papers, reviews, and short communications.

In this Special Issue of Plants, we expect to publish a collection of papers on the recent advances in Crop Plants and Heavy Metals.

Prof. Dr. Michael Moustakas
Dr. Ilektra Sperdouli
Dr. Julietta Moustaka
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• heavy metal-metalloid toxicity
• metal uptake
• metal detoxification
• crop metabolism
• crop stress physiology
• nutrient deficiency
• oxidative stress
• metal transporters
• metal remobilization
• heavy metal-induced ROS
• metalloproteins
• phytochelatins
• phytoremediation